‘I Worried I Was Falling Behind, So I Did the Math on the American Dream’

The author, a millennial, investigated the concept of the American Dream and its perceived decline by examining economic mobility data. A key definition of upward mobility, found in a 2025 peer-reviewed article by sociologist Deirdre Bloome in Sociological Methods & Research, defines it as whether individuals' adult incomes exceed their parents' incomes, either in absolute dollar amounts or by occupying a higher economic rank. The author's personal financial data illustrates this point: their parents' household income at their age, adjusted for inflation, was approximately $82,000, while the author's current household income is $105,000. This personal calculation suggests a positive trend in absolute income compared to their parents. However, the author notes a broader societal narrative suggesting that milestones of adulthood are arriving later and that millennials may inherit wealth too late, creating a dissonance between personal financial progress and generational outlooks. Despite these concerns, the author also acknowledges research indicating that many millennials are wealthier than stereotypes suggest, with homeowners experiencing record gains and the middle class, while potentially shrinking, stretching upward economically. The analysis aims to reconcile these conflicting observations about generational economic progress.